General News.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 325, 11 July 1879, Page 16

General News.

The Black Hills have a newspaper called The Up Quick Snorter. Mgr. Capel, it is said, has had an offer to go on a lecturing tour through the United States, during which he will preach in aid of his pet scheme of higher Catholic education. Of the twenty-five Generals who hold the highest appointments m the French army thirteen served in the infantry, eight in the general staff, two in the cavalry, and two in the engineers ; the artillery being, therefore, the only arm of the service which is not represented among the officers filling th« most important post in the army. The average age of the twenty-five Generals is between fifty-eight and fifty-nine years, the oldest being General de Cissy, who is sixty-nine, and the youngest two being General Daroast, chief of the general staff, and General de Gallifet, commanding the Ninth Corps, neither of the latter being yet fifty years of age. Altogether, the officers holding the highest appointments in the French army are, as a body, younger than those in a like position in any other European force. The youngest officer, General de Gallifet, is one of those who have seen most service. In the Crimea he was mentioned in an order of the day for his gallant con luct at the capture of the Russian redoubts before Sebastopol. In the Mexican war he was again mentioned in an order of the day for his gallantry at Puebla, when he was severely wounded, and at Sedan he led the famous charge of cavalry, which is said to have excited the warm admiration of King William. There ia a terrible fAmine in many villages in the valley of the Nile. Where it ia worst nothing seems to have been done. At Belyaneh, Bagour Hau, and such towns, the people have been and are starving in utter rreglect. Sitting in the fields and the open streets, many of them have been supporting themselves for days on sorrel and the foul refuse from the cane factories. All human feelings are lost, and in trying to distribute a few morsels of bread at Belyaneh, the stronger tore it from the lips of those weaker than themselves, and struggled till exhausted for the merest scrap. At Edfoo there lay an i old woman by the bank, with the water washing half over her, too weak to move or speak. Her eyes were sunk into her head, and her whole skin was like dried parchment from the sun. Her body was shrivelled to the size of an apple. She could not swallow, except by outside artificial friction, while another woman forced the food down her throat. This was no uncommon case, women and children, from their smaller strength, affording the most ghastly spectacles of the march of famine. The facility with which divorce can be obtained in Germany has seldom been more strikngJy shown than in a case lately before the courts, a short time ago a young lady, being desirous of finding a husband advertised for one in a newspaper, stating, as an inducement to a any suitable man who might come forward, that she possessed a fortune of 6,000 marks, or about £300. A young man who had been educated for a mercantile career, read the invitation and answered it ; but being shrewd and cautious, he refused to marry the young lady I until the 6,000 marks were produced, as it was his intention to buy with them a business, on the proceeds of which he and his intended wife would live. Ultimately, however, the wiles of the young lady appear to have prevailed against the caution of the young man, for the marriage took place without the money being produced, but not until the lady had solemnly promised that the 6,000 marks should be paid to her husband eight days after the wedding day. The day of payment arrived, and then the newly married husband received from an old friend of his wife the dowry, consisting, however, not of 6,000 but of 600 marks only. Deeply hurt, the husband determined to appeal to the law for redress, and prayed that his marriage may be declared null and void because of the deceit which had been practised upon him. Evidence having been given to prove that had the plaintiff kuown that his wife had not 6,000 marks he would not have married her, the judge decided in his favour, and the marriage was declared to be null and void.— Pall Mall Gazette. The following is an extract from an article which appeared in ; the Paris Pays — M. Paul de Cassagnac's organ— in reply to an attack made in the Chamber of Deputies by M. Jean David on the validity , of M. de Cassagnac's election :— "Tall, thin, bony, with a yellow beard, prematurely bent, the grimacing head of a non-liberated convict, he moved about for an hour his long arms and his stooping spine. . . . Jean David perspired, turned pale, gesticulated. Hia mouth seemed full of gruel. From time to time, with despairing air, he turned towards the President, claiming the help of his' bell, and the president was deaf to his prayer. People chatted, whispered, laughed, and Jean David frantically drank two or three draughts of water. . . . Nobody replied to M. Jean David. His ironmongers talk excited only disdain. This Jack-pudding. . . . though tfl had read his speech, gave himself the air of going after the sitting \W correct his proof, as if he had indulged in an extemporization, of which he is incapable. His sole object was, no doubt, to correct his mistakes in spelling. Cavalier Michel Steffano de Rossi has perfected some instruments useful for the study of volcanoes. His microphone has lately proved most valuable in Naplet. Professor Palmieri, the Vesuvian specialist^ says the apparatus was so delicate and complete that truly reraarkabiP results were obtained. Cavalier de Rossi went to Naples this autumn, to compare with the records at Vesuvius the results he had obtained during the summer in his Sisimico observatory at Rocca di Papa, where with his own especial microphone he could hear the agitation produced by the interior forces of the earth during the bursting forth of the eruption at Vesuvius. De Rossi also visited the solfatara at Poa2ruoli, and by his microphone the internal labour of the volcano was heard in such a surprising manner and with such noise that every one preeemt during the examination was startled. Cavalier de Rossi will give an account of these interesting facts in a publication which he is preparing, « Bulletino di Vulcanismo Italiano." In this work he will show to the scientific world how well he has made the old earth talk to aim,